One recent and one future event has the face of Brandon University’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science changing this year.

Firstly, computer science professor Dr. Ashraf Abdelbar has become the new chair of the department, taking over the position from mathematics professor Dr. Jeff Williams.

Williams’ term as department chair was set to end on July 1st, but was cut short by a sabbatical that he embarked on starting on January 1st, calling for the department to elect Abdelbar for the position. He will serve as the department’s chair for six months.

He also commented in an interview, “On the computer science side, we [the department] would like to increase our involvement with the three local high schools.”

Secondly, the department will soon hire a new assistant professor in Mathematics, as it begins the next step of its search after its job posting, which was first posted on December 5th of last year, reached its deadline last Friday, January 20th.

According to the job posting, the new assistant professor would serve a five-year term, and “be expected to successfully teach a wide variety of undergraduate courses at the first, second, third, and fourth year levels in Mathematics, including introductory statistics, and to maintain an active program of research in an area compatible with members of the Department.”

Abdelbar expanded on the process of hiring a new assistant professor: “We will first create a short list of 3-4 candidates based on their CV’s and application materials. The short-listed candidates will then be contacted and invited to visit the BU campus, where they will meet with members of the department, and will each give public talks open to everyone including students.”

The assistant professor will start their term on July 1st, or “upon availability of [a] successful candidate.” As the department is still early in the hiring process, other details are scarce at this time.